Shop gets OK for big signs

Pines, jewelry store reach compromise

Pembroke Pines — TV viewers and radio listeners will have no problem identifying the store now under construction at the Pembroke Lakes Square shopping center, on Pines Boulevard at Hiatus Road.

The signs will read: Jared, the Galleria of Jewelry, a heavily advertised business.

Although the city's Board of Adjustment insisted the entire name is too long for a city that allows only small, dignified signs, it ended up allowing the whole name but in a much smaller size than the store requested.

"Just use 'Jared,' everyone knows the name from the commercials," said alternate board member Robert Hendry, who then realized the error of his ways.

"They might think it's the guy from Subway," he said, of the man featuring in commercials as having lost weight by eating at Subway.

The plan is for the jewelry store to open late this year in a corner building at the Pembroke Lakes Square shopping center anchored by Home Depot.

Because it is a busy location on six-lane Hiatus Road and eight-lane Pines Boulevard, where "motorists pass quickly," store representatives said they wanted more and larger signs than allowed by the city's sign code.

The requested signs, store representatives told the board, would "allow motorists to identify the business and have adequate time to locate the appropriate driveway for access to and throughout the shopping center." The proposed signs also would "promote safe and efficient" use of the parking lot.

The store also noted that it relies on its entire registered name "for loyal customer recognition."

The store's representative, Craig McDonald, of Deerfield Beach, asked the board for three variances from the sign code. Instead of the maximum allowable two signs on the walls, he wanted three because the store will have three walls. He wanted the signs to be 212 square feet instead of the 64 allowed by the code.

And he wanted the "J" in Jared to be 37 inches high, even though the code limits the height of letters to 23 inches.

Board Chairman James Ryan said that with all the commercials, the entire company name isn't necessary. He said businesses can't move into a city knowing its rules and then expect to change them. "No doubt we'd love to have them in our community, but when you move into a restrictive community, you have to go along with it," he said.

But the board and store compromised.

In the deal suggested by Vice Chairman Jack McCluskey, McDonald withdrew the request for three signs, agreeing to put signs on only two of the three exterior walls.

Rather than make the largest sign 212 square feet, he agreed to make it 91 square feet, which is still more than the 64 square feet allowed in the code.

And McDonald accepted 30 inches for the "J" instead of the 37 he requested and 23 allowed.

Joe Kollin can be reached at jkollin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7913.